goes in and attacks another country without a u.n. mandate, and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work, and those are considerations that we have to take into account. >> now, david gergen is a senior political analyst for cnn, and he joins us by phone. david, if it proves to be a chemical weapons attack in syria, this is could be the deadliest case of such an attack, really since saddam hussein killed thousands of kerdz in northern iraq. does the u.s. have an obligation to intervene in syria? >> i think it has an obligation to act and act militarily to punish syria, and i am sympathetic with the president that he has no good choices here, and america doesn't have the influence it once had in the middle east, and you don't want to get drawn into a war. the american public doesn't want to do that and it's not in the national interest. so it's a tricky one. i must say, if you ask me, what would you advice in this s